Since I have started blogging I have also started reading other blogs, particularly “mommy blogs“. I’ve noticed that a lot of them promote coupons, freebies and ways to save money. As a mom trying to make ends meet, I find these things particularly appealing. As someone trying to live as environmentally friendly a life as possible, I had to ask myself if these things are good for the environment. My answer?
Sometimes.
It depends on the situation, the freebie, what it is and even how it arrives.
Here’s my thinking:
Free products received through the mail:
If you’re not sure if you will like a product, but you’d like to try it, a sample-sized freebie is a great thing. If you don’t like it, then you haven’t wasted a lot of product, along with your money. Great examples are new granola bars or flavors of coffee. My favorite site for finding out about freebies and samples is Freebies 4 Mom.
If you know you like a product and they’re going to send you a sample size through the mail for free, it’s great for you, but bad for the environment. Think about the added packaging and transportation costs to send one tiny package to you. It’s particularly bad if we’re talking about something heavy, for example, a liquid such as dish washing soap.
If the product in question is a sample of something you know you don’t like, then you should really ask: Why are you having it mailed to you? Are you collecting things to give to the poor? Do you know your sister uses the item? Consider whether there might be more ecologically friendly ways to get these things without spending a lot of money, or in the case of giving things to the poor, would it be better to just give a couple of dollars?
Free products you pick up at conferences, vendor shows, stores, etc
At first glance you’re probably saying “what’s wrong with free things I pick up myself?” Nothing is wrong with it if you will honestly use them. Sometimes you can even find out about great products that you otherwise would never have tried. However, if you’re picking up something that is just going to clutter your house or desk and ultimately end up in landfill, think twice about picking it up. If vendors are not able to give away as much, they won’t produce as much. Jon wrote more about this issue in his post on Thinking Green While Traveling.
Coupons and coupons for free items:
Coupons our children cut out
from the local paperDo the coupons arrive at your house unprompted by you? Great! File them in your coupon system. Money Saving Mom has a system that looks very practical.
Do you request the coupons to be mailed? Or print them on your printer? Then make sure that there is a good chance that you will use coupon. Also consider is the coupon worth the ink, paper and wear and tear on your printer that repeated printing costs. Do you recycle or reuse the rest of the paper that comes with the coupon? And finally, are you going to use the product once you purchase it, or will it become waste or clutter in your home? My favorite mommy blog for finding out about coupons is Coupon Geek.
My favorite source for printing coupons is MyPoints.com. They are an outlet for coupons.com and SmartSource coupons. Besides getting the value of the coupons on my shopping trip, I get points for all the coupons I use, plus a bonus for using a certain number in one month. I’ve been a member of MyPoints.com for years and I earn a couple of gift cards to my favorite stores each year.
Another source for free samples and coupons that I like a lot is BzzAgent. BzzAgent is a form of marketing where after you sign up with them you are offered campaigns for various products. You can choose which campaigns to sign up for, and then they send you a product (or a coupon for a free product) and coupons to share with other people. If you like the product, you are supposed to tell others, and then you get credit in their system. This is nice because you only have to sign up for things that you are genuinely interested in and you get to try new products and you can give feedback on the products. I have seen products and marketing campaigns changed because of the feedback form BzzAgents.
I’m not trying to say that freebies and coupons are all bad for the environment, but they’re not all good either. Hopefully next time you’re thinking “yay, freebie!” You’ll also stop and think, “Do I need this? Will I use this?” and you’ll make a decision that’s best for you AND the planet!
Happy Greening!
Alicia
Great thoughts! The Kashi sample was one I really loved…you can TerraCycle all the packaging after you enjoy the yummy treat! (Our family really liked the new flavor!) I also like VocalPoint since they usually send coupons for free items in the store instead of the sample.
Thanks for the comments Kate. We like VocalPoint as well, they have really made an effort to make all their packaging part of the useful information and recyclable. Do you have a place that you TerraCycle the Kashi packaging? My husband is really the expert on TerraCycle and I know he had to set up a juice pouch brigade to send those in. He wrote about that in the post about TerraCycle and Walmart.
if you guys haven’t already gone to the down2earth expo and were planning to go, you can get a big stack of coupons for organic dairy there – the kids coloring activity had a $2 off 2 organic valley milk coupon on the back, plus each of the stands for the companies had coupons.
coupons I will actually use *for* products that meet my food buying guidelines! I should have gone back around a few times and gotten extras. 😉
We are definitely going to check out D2E tomorrow with the kids after my Greening Grace GreenUp CleanUp Kickoff event at church tomorrow:
http://gracemedford.org/greenupcleanup
We know a number of the vendors that are there and are excited to see and meet others.